I can’t believe we are beginning to think about math Christmas activities. I enjoy using seasonal activities and counters with my students. Keeping students engaged during this time of year can be tricky, so I have tried to develop some engaging and fun activities to use with students.
Engaging students to learn in math class will help students to love math. Unfortunately, children develop a dislike of math early on and end up resenting it into adult life. So how can teachers make math more interesting to engage students? Students who feel successful in math class are happier and more engaged in learning. Check out The Bonus Guide for Creating a Growth Mindset Classroom and Students Who Love Math for ideas, lessons, and mindset surveys for students to use in your classroom to cultivate a positive classroom community in mathematics. You can also sign up for other freebies from me Here at Easternshoremathteacher.com.
This time of year can be crazy. With so much on everyone’s minds and disruptions to the school day (assemblies, band concerts, holiday shopping, etc.), getting through a math lesson can be difficult. This time of year is excellent for incorporating digital resources to help with engagement and opportunities for students to practice their math facts through games.
Digital Math Resources
Students love to use technology and are often more engaged. In addition, they save you time at the copy machine because you just need to download and go.
I have created standards-based math resources for preschool-5th grade students to use in math class. math resources at my TPT store.
Here Are Some Great Digital Math Resources:
- Word Problems of Addition and Subtraction
- Multiplication Arrays Worksheets and Slides
- Math Equal Sign
Number Sense Building Activities
These can be quick activities that help students to understand numbers and enjoy math. They can be used as a warm-up, whole class, small group, or independent activity.
- Represent Numbers to 20– Matching Games and Christmas math worksheets for kindergarten are included.
What is Number Sense in Mathematics?
Number sense refers to a person’s understanding of number concepts, operations, and applications of numbers and operations. Number sense is flexible thinking and intuition about numbers.
It is the ability to be flexible with numbers and have a variety of strategies to use. Students know how to use and adapt the strategy to meet different situations.
Number Sense Math Games
Talking, playing, and solving math throughout the day- not just during math class builds number sense and the love of mathematics.
The 24 Game website had math puzzles for fun to introduce to students.
Math Dice by ThinkFun has students roll the three scoring dice and combine addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to build an equation closest to or equal to the target.
Puzzles in Math
Number puzzles can be fun and engaging for students.
Sign up to get this Freebie of 71 Math Puzzles for fun to use with your students. These are great for warm-up, whole class, small group, or independent work. You can also print and put the puzzles up on a bulletin board. Then, have strips of paper for students to write down their answers. It is an excellent early-finisher activity and allows students to see math as fun.
Read more…How to use Engaging Math Puzzles for Fun to Build Number Sense
Decomposing Numbers
Putting numbers together and taking them apart (composing and decomposing numbers) in different ways is another way to help students become flexible in their thinking.
I use this Decomposing Numbers resource with my younger students to warm up each day to help with this. I have sets for different seasons and holidays to change it up. Having students solve problems differently and then sharing their different strategies allows students to learn from each other.
Read more… Discover Fun and Exciting Activities and Unpack What is Decomposing in Math?
Subitizing
It is the ability to instantly recognize “how many” in a small set.
A perfect example of subitizing is dice; when you roll a die and see two dots on top, you instantly recognize it as representing a quantity of two. To figure it out, you don’t need to count each dot on the dice. Subitizing Resource
Subitizing is the ability to rapidly and automatically recognize a set of objects without counting.
Read more..What’s The Best Definition of Subitizing Plus Proven Ways to Teach It
Pixel Art
It is a fun digital self-checking activity. Students answer a series of math questions in Google Sheets. If they answer the questions correctly, the image begins to color in. They are so much fun! Check out the math holiday pixel art activities.
Here Are Some Fun Pixel Art Activities:
Multiplication Practice 3rd Grade
Math Fact Practice
Students need many opportunities to practice their math facts. It can be a warm-up, whole class, small group, or independent activity.
Giving students holiday counters or mats is an easy way to get into the spirit of the season. The resource Represent Numbers to 20 has a gift and snowflake ten frames that can be used with some fun holiday counters. These are great for winter math activities and holiday math activities. Holiday math worksheets are also included with this product to represent numbers up to 20.
I like to use these Part-Part-Whole activities to have students say the part they see and the part that is covered: Part-Part-Whole | Holiday.
In addition, there are a lot of digital products where you can practice your math facts. Click here to find some Fact Practice.
Math Literature
Using math literature is one way to connect math to the real world and the holidays. You can read a book and talk about where they see math or use the book to do math activities.
Primary
Poke A Dot is a book by Melissa and Doug. Kids are introduced to a Christmas-themed item like cookies, reindeer, or carolers on each book page. Students then “poke” the dots on the page as they count the items. The plastic bubbles “pop” when they are poked, reinforcing 1:1 correspondence as your students count aloud.
The Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Schertle. As Little Blue delivers the 5 trees to his friends, there is an opportunity to reinforce kindergarten and first-grade math concepts as well!
Littest Reindeer by Brandi Dougherty, who desperately wants to join Santa’s crew despite his small stature! One aspect of his “training” to become one of Santa’s reindeer involves jumping as far as he can, which makes this book an excellent lead-in to a simple measurement activity! Allow your students to jump from a starting line and measure how far they can jump. Put this information into a data table.
100 Snowmen by Jen Arena is the tale of 100 snowmen. It is a great book to use with students to solve addition problems.
Intermediate
5 More Sleeps Til Christmas by Jimmy Fallon is about a little boy counting down to the big day. This book would make an excellent lead-in to an activity where your students examine patterns in numbers. What is the date when there are 5 days left until Christmas? What about 4? 3? or 2? When there are 10 nights of sleep left until Christmas, what would be the date?
The Gingerbread Man by Gail Yerrill is a classic tale of a cookie who comes to life and evades being eaten by a number of characters, only to be outsmarted by a cunning fox with a sweet tooth. Early in the book, the gingerbread man is baked using a recipe found in the book. The recipe is listed both using fractions and grams. Reinforce fractions, decimals, and whole number operations by asking your students to adjust to a half or double recipe.
Math For All Seasons by Greg Tang has math riddles for all seasons for students to solve.
Additional Resources for Math For Christmas
- Math Advent Calendar– What a great idea!
- 5 Ways to Keep Kids Learning Math Through the Holidays
- Winter Holiday Books and Activities
Math Winter Activities and Math Christmas Activities
Keeping students engaged and learning through the month of December can be difficult. Use this time to try out some digital resources and games to keep students learning.
So how can teachers make math more interesting to engage students? Download The Free Ultimate Guide for Creating a Growth Mindset Classroom and Students Who Love Math for ideas, lessons, and mindset surveys to use in your classroom. You can also sign up to receive other freebies from me Here at Easternshoremathteacher.com.
These ideas can also be used for other holidays; they are not just math Christmas activities!
